Ha ha...why do you think that a paper will look geeky to me?
Anyway, I misunderstood the whole process. They are trying to use the husk as fuel, and this idea is not new at all. We all know about bio fuels. BTW they say in page 3:

Rice is cultivated in every region of Thailand, the total annual rice production
being estimated as 20 million tons [5]. To produce rice in milling process, rice husk will
be removed when passing through the process. Rice husk is the outer cover of rice that
accounts for about 20% by weight of the rice [15, 16]. In the past, rice husk was mostly
dumped as waste that caused waste disposal problem for the mills [15]. Also, when rice
husk is fermented by microorganisms, methane is emitted contributing to global warming
problem [17]. Rice husk is a fine and light particle and can cause breathing problems [15].
Hence, the rice mill owner should find the proper way to deal with this waste. Cement
industry can use rice husk to add silica in the product itself because rice husk content
high silica [18], and some amount of the waste are used as fertilizer in fields [15]. These
ways are not enough to significantly reduce rice husk disposal problem. Another way that
has been proposed is using the husk for energy purpose [5, 15]. Rice husk can be used as
solid fuel by combustion process [19]. Many countries including Thailand use rice husk
to produce electricity [20]. Only 50-70% of the husk in Thailand is utilized [12]. The
characteristics of rice husk from the pilot plant study site – Roi Et Green Project at Roi Et
province, Thailand – are presented in Table 1 [21].

But in Bangladesh the rice husks has been used from the ancient time, and it is very efficient fuel for cooking.

"Inspiration is needed in geometry, just as much as in poetry." -- Aleksandr Pushkin

These days scientists can get electricity almost from anything. This technology works on the excess of organic matter, which rice privides during photosynthesis (70 %). The voltage is about be 3.2 W per square meter.